Beam names five Irish goodwill ambassadors for their Kilbeggan brand in U.S.

Beam, which recently acquired Cooley DIstillery, has commenced a major marketing plan for Kilbeggan whiskey.

To that end they have appointed five Irish ambassadors for the brand across the U.S.

The ambassadors are featured below.

Jennifer Graham, San Francisco

Jennifer Graham (27) earned her undergraduate degree from University College Dublin (UCD) and her MSc Masters from Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, UCD.

She is currently working in San Francisco, which she says has it all. Graham is from Sutton, north of Dublin’s City Center, and says what she misses the most is having her friends and family close by.

Graham’s biggest surprise living in San Francisco is that a couple hours drive north has slopes for skiing and a couple hours south has the famous California sun. Graham is never at a loss for something to do. She’s looking forward to a skiing trip in March and until then plans to learn to surf. Although the area has great surfing, Graham says the regular shark sightings are a big deterrent.

San Francisco offers a wide range of cuisine, the most exotic she has tried is Peruvia. It also offers an endless stream of activities, including the America Cup qualifiers, Fleet Week, and Giants games to name a few. She also plans to visit the lovely neighboring towns of Murin and Socelito.

Graham’s favorite Kilbeggan Distilling product is the Kilbeggan because she has a bit of a sweet tooth. She said “it has a really great balance of caramel, vanilla, and oak. It’s so approachable yet really tastes like whiskey, much more so than other Irish blends out there.”

Kilbeggan is a minimum four years older than Irish whiskey, which “leaves a really great balance of flavors as the whiskey has had more time to develop mature characteristics.”

You can follow Graham on twitter @KilbegganJG.

Emily Duffy, Boston

Emily Duffy (23) graduated from the University of Limerick with a Bachelor of Laws with Irish/Gaelic. She is from Limerick, the city immortalized in the song “Limerick You’re a Lady” and currently working in Boston.

She settled into Boston well, largely in part because of the large Irish and even larger Irish American population. Boston in a sporty city, which she loves and she can always find something entertaining to do. There are plenty of bars, including lots of Irish bars and many of them show rugby games. She adds, “The sheer amount of Irish bars in Boston is a sign of [the thriving Irish and Irish American population] and what better place to bring some great whiskey from home.”

Duffy says she misses the hot weather in Ireland and her friends and family the most. She skypes them all the time and she receives viber calls to her phone and says, “it’s almost like I never left!”

She can not pick just one Kilbeggan Distilling product and her favourite. She says it changes everyday. With the current cold weather, she likes to warm up with a smokey Connemara neat or a Kilbeggan “Hot Toddy.”

Duffy said she was surprised at “how amazingly ‘Irish’ Boston is” and she says that “it’s definitely a home from home.”

You can follow on twitter @EmilyDuffy4.

Joanne Ryan, New York

Joanne Ryan, twenty five, is from Waterford and graduated from the Cork Institute of Technology.

Working in the US, Ryan misses her friends and family the most, but stays in touch with them through Facetime and Skype. She virtually attended her Mum’s 60th birthday and helped her one-year-old niece Roisin blow out her birthday candles.

Ryan also misses her Mum’s home cooked dinners, especially her favorite Shepherd’s pie. She says, “No one makes it like my Mum.”

She is currently based in New York and said her biggest surprise in America was how quickly she was able to settle in and how quickly New York began to feel like home. Ryan said she expected to feel some loneliness from moving to a big city, but settling in “was hugely helped by the friendliness of the people in New York, especially my team in New York with Beam. I had great support immediately.”

She says that that thanks to her team and her job, she always felt like there was something to do and someone she could go to. In her own words, “I felt a part of the NY Beam family as soon as I met everyone which really helped me settle into my new life in New York.”

Ryan finds it difficult to choose a favorite Kilbeggan Distilling products. One of her two favorites is the Kilbeggan, which is great for a night out with friends. She also really likes Connemara, which she says, “is perfect for me when I am in a cosy warm pub or on a winter’s night at home in front of the fire.” You can follow her on twitter @joryan87.